Flower looming, or daisy looming, is an off-shoot from the more complex Teneriffe lace that was popular in the 19th century.

Whilst Teneriffe lace is composed of detailed embroidery and weaving worked on a spoked wheel of fine thread, flower looming often concentrates on the materials and joining methods used to create visual impact.

A flower motif made from torn strips of crystal organza and purple satin. Wool has been used to stitch the centre.

Common materials used in contemporary flower looming include brightly coloured yarns, fine threads and strips of fabric.

Synthetic “ribbon straw” or Swistraw is also popular.

Left: ribbon straw

Right: coloured yarn

A vintage pattern worked in thread

Flower loomed motifs usually have very little embroidery on them, often only a small amount which holds the webbing in place at the centre.

Occasionally more embroidery, pom poms, buttons, beads or other embellishments are used to decorate the centre.

Motifs sewn together to create a finished block

The edges can be left free, crocheted or knotted to hold the petals in place. These techniques may also be used to join the motifs together at the same time as working the edging.

Sometimes a collection of finished and edged motifs may be sewn together to create a finished project.

Yarns

This flower was made using a bulky acrylic chenille yarn

There are many yarns that work well with daisy looms. In order to produce an attractive, well formed motif, your yarn should be of an even diameter throughout. The texture of your yarn is totally up to you!

I have successfully used a large range of yarns including:

Plain wool, acrylic and rayon

Acrylic and wool bouclé

Acrylic/wool chenille

Tulle strips (Sold as a yarn wound into “wheels” in craft shops in Australia)

Mohair

Ribbon yarn

Ribbon

Raffia

Rayon and polyester ribbon straw

Strips of fabric

All work well, and produce a large range of different effects.

Yarns that don’t work well (like those on the left), are uneven in width. They produce lumpy, uneven flowers.

My samples include an off-white thick-and-thin wool on the bottom right, a blue ladder yarn with big, firm bobbles on the left, and a textured pink and orange yarn with big pink and orange bobbles (top).

If you really want to use a bobbly yarn like the blue and pink/orange ones, try stitching the centres with a plain, smooth yarn. It may or may not work, depending on the size and firmness of the bobbles.

Looms

Studio Twelve looms are one of the most popular flower looms from the 1960s and 70s. They are very high quality plastic and hundreds are still in use today.

There are several types of flower looms. They include:

daisy winders

flower looms

peg looms

card looms

cog looms

pin looms

and folding looms

The “Crazy Daisy Winder” made by the Ralph C. Springer Co.

Daisy Winders

Daisy winders have spokes that can be retracted into the loom by turning a knob underneath. They include such looms as the “Crazy Daisy Winder” made by the Ralph C. Springer Co., the Knit-Wit loom by Bucilla and the Wendy Multi Needle.

The Birch Daisy Wheel, showing the flat embroidery surface.

Metal daisy looms are often best suited to yarns of fingering weight, or thinner, as the spokes are quite short.

Traditionally, motifs made on the loom were made with fingering weight yarn for the flowers (Aussie 4 ply yarn), and lace weight yarn for the crocheted edges (this yarn would be called 2 ply in Australia).

The blue motifs you can see on the left are made from a Japanese fingering weight wool with crocheted edges, while the red flower is made from an Australian DK weight wool (Cleckheaton Country 8 ply), and has a knotted edging.

Some modern daisy winders such as Telarin looms from Argentina have much longer spokes and are suited to a range of yarn thicknesses.

Pin looms are most often used for Teneriffe lace, but they can also be used to make loomed flowers.

On the left is the Japanese Koppo Cushion daisy winder from the 1950s. Whilst it is called a “daisy winder” the instructions that come with the loom show that it is meant to be used to make Teneriffe lace.

However, if you use ordinary fine dressmaking pins instead of short lace pins, you could use it to make a large range of loomed flowers and motifs.

Other pin looms have templates glued onto corrugated cardboard. The cardboard template is then sat upon a cushion before the pins are inserted to protect the user from the points.

Folding Looms

Whilst square folding looms such as the butterfly loom (used to make waffle weave) are quite common, round ones are rare.

One is the Fiorella loom shown on the left. It is used to make flowers 20cm or 8″ in diameter and, at the time of revising this article, commonly sells for over US$100 on Ebay.

To use a folding loom you wind your yarn around the notches to create the flower petals, much as you would on a daisy winder. After finishing your flower the locking mechanism is released (in this case the white bar), and the loom is folded in half to release the finished motif.

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